Watching Gerald Wallace and Kris Humphries try to score inside last season was an exercise in futility.
Easy layup. Miss. Easy layup. Miss. Easy layup. Miss.
However, Wallace and Humphries no longer play for the Nets.
The Nets replaced them with Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Andrei Kirilenko.
As a result, Deron Williams' frustration level should go down and his assists should go up.
Here are their 2012-13 stats -- courtesy of basketball-reference.com -- for layups and shots at the rim:
Garnett
Layups: 69.3 percent
Rim: 72.4 percent
Kirilenko
Layups: 56.1 percent
Rim: 66.4 percent
Pierce
Layups: 56.1 percent
Rim: 59.1 percent
Wallace
Layups: 49.5 percent
Rim: 54.7 percent
Humphries
Layups: 42.7 percent
Rim: 57 percent
Reggie Evans (52.6 percent layups, 54.3 percent rim) isn't a good inside scorer, but he isn't expected to play as much as he did last season and doesn't need to shoot with all the shooters on this team.